- France: More than 1,700 people banned from leaving British cruise ship over likely stomach flu outbreak
Source: Sky News [UK]
“More than 1,700 passengers and crew members have been ordered not to leave their cruise ship while French health officials carry out tests after a likely stomach flu outbreak onboard. The cruise liner Ambition, which set sail from Belfast on 8 May, on a 14-night tour of western France and Spain, has seen dozens of cases of suspected gastroenteritis among those onboard. The vessel called at Liverpool on Saturday and cases of gastroenteritis were said to have risen after passengers boarded at that stop. There is no reason to link what looks like a stomach flu outbreak on the ship with the hantavirus cluster on the luxury MV Hondius ship, the regional health authority said.” (05/13/26)
- Russia: City regime issues censorship order on photos/videos of drone strike effects
Source: US News & World Report
“Moscow authorities have imposed restrictions on the publication of photos and videos showing the aftermath of ‘terrorist attacks,’ including drone strikes, the office of Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Wednesday. An order appearing on the mayor’s official website, referring to the city’s ‘Anti-terrorist Commission’ said the directive was aimed at ‘preventing the dissemination of unreliable information.’ It prevents media, as well as individuals and emergency services, from publishing any pictures or videos of ‘terrorist acts, including drone attacks’ until they appear on websites of the Defence Ministry or city government. … Other parts of Russia have already imposed similar bans.” (05/13/26)
- Board of Peace envoy Mladenov says ceasefire hinges on Hamas’s disarmament
Source: SFGate
“Nickolay Mladenov, the top diplomat overseeing the U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza, said Wednesday the truce hinged on Hamas’ disarmament, a sticking point that has stalled progress on other fronts, including rebuilding the mostly destroyed enclave. The high representative for U.S. President Donald Trump’s International Board of Peace in Gaza, Mladenov, said months without progress implementing the deal benefited neither Israel nor Palestinians. He said the phased deal was paralyzed over Hamas not yet disarming, calling it ‘not negotiable.'” (05/13/26)
- Shrinking Milka chocolate bar tricked consumers, says German court
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“In a landmark German case targeting chocolate ‘shrinkflation’, a court has found that the manufacturer of Milka’s classic Alpine Milk bar cheated consumers and broke competition law. Cutting back on the amount of chocolate while having the same kind of wrapper meant that customers were being misled, Bremen regional court ruled. The three-week court case was brought by Hamburg’s consumer protection office (VZHH), which accused manufacturer Mondelēz of deceiving consumers by cutting the weight of the ‘Alpenmilch’ bar from 100g to 90g. Reacting to the ruling Mondelēz told the BBC it was ‘taking the decision of the court seriously’ and would ‘look at it in detail now’. ” (05/13/26)
- TX: Home invasion ends in fatal shooting
Source: Yahoo! News
“A home invasion in Hopkins County ended in gunfire Tuesday when a homeowner fatally shot an alleged intruder, local authorities said. … investigators reviewed footage from a Ring doorbell camera that showed an individual, identified as Buck Clary, striking the glass front door of the residence while yelling. The footage reportedly showed Clary breaking a ‘portion of the glass and reaching inside the home,’ the sheriff’s office said. The homeowner then discharged a firearm through the door, striking Clary.” (05/13/26)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/home-invasion-ends-fatal-shooting-160205157.html
- LA: State senate advances plan to eliminate majority-black US House district
Source: SFGate
“Republican senators in Louisiana advanced a plan Wednesday to eliminate one of two majority-[b]lack, Democratic-held congressional seats following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down the state’s U.S. House map as an illegal racial gerrymander. The early morning Senate committee vote came after hours of impassioned testimony from [b]lack residents and Democrats opposed to the move. Republicans opted not to pursue a more aggressive approach, which could have targeted both Democratic seats for elimination. … The redistricting efforts to undo minority districts are the latest variation in a 10-month-long national redistricting battle that already has involved about one-third of the states.” (05/13/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/louisiana-advances-plan-to-eliminate-22256775.php
- Tunisia: Court upholds sentence against journalist political prisoners
Source: The New Arab [UK]
“A Tunisian appeals court on Tuesday upheld the three-and-a-half-year prison sentences of two prominent journalists jailed for alleged financial crimes, according to their lawyer. The journalists, Mourad Zeghidi and Borhen Bsaies, were sentenced in January for money laundering and tax evasion — accusations they denied. … Since President Kais Saied staged a sweeping power grab in 2021, rights groups have denounced a regression in freedoms in Tunisia. Dozens of Saied’s critics are currently behind bars. The case against Zeghidi and Bsaies has been condemned by media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) as ‘judicial harassment.'” (05/13/26)
https://www.newarab.com/news/tunisia-upholds-sentence-against-jailed-journalists
- SC: Supreme Court unanimously overturns Murdaugh double murder conviction
Source: Fox News
“The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the murder conviction of Alex Murdaugh, who was convicted in March 2023 of double homicide of his wife and son. The court ordered a new trial, saying that Mary Rebecca ‘Becky’ Hill, who served as the court clerk in Colleton County, exercised ‘improper external influences’ during Murdaugh’s first trial. Murdaugh’s attorney Dick Harpootlian said in a statement that Murdaugh will remain in custody. The state supreme court voted unanimously on the decision. ‘Although we are aware of the time, money, and effort expended for this lengthy trial, we have no choice but to reverse the denial of Murdaugh’s motion for a new trial due to Hill’s improper external influences on the jury and remand for a new trial,’ their ruling said.” (05/13/26)
- US appeals court pauses sexual predator’s $83 million defamation payment to victim
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“A federal appeals court has ruled that Donald Trump will not have to pay the $83.3m defamation award to writer E Jean Carroll until the US supreme court either reviews the case or rejects an appeal. The second US circuit court of appeals in New York issued the order on Monday …. But the court also required that Trump increase the bond by $7.46m, to account for interest that would accrue on Carroll’s award during any further legal proceedings before the nation’s highest court. … In January 2024, a Manhattan jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $83.3m for defaming her in 2019 after she accused him of raping her inside the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the 1990s. It came a year after a separate jury awarded Carroll $5m in damages after finding Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll.” (05/13/26)
- Iran: Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi needs months of care after collapse in prison
Source: SFGate
“Doctors who examined Nobel Peace laureate and activist Narges Mohammadi more than a week after she collapsed at a prison in Iran say she needs months of treatment, her foundation said Wednesday. An angiography procedure showed two of her main arteries have significant blockage and that her vascular disease has significantly deteriorated since she last had the procedure in 2024, the foundation said in a statement. Mohammadi, 53, was urgently transferred from prison to a hospital in northwestern Iran on May 1 after she fell unconscious. She was released on bail nearly 10 days later and transferred to a hospital in Tehran where her specialists examined her. The attending physician said her blood pressure continues to fluctuate, in part due to damage to part of the brain that is responsible for such regulations. The doctors recommended an eight-month treatment course in an environment ‘free from external stressors, where she can receive permanent care and long-term treatment.'” (05/13/26)
- Trump picks new ICE gang shot-caller
Source: The Hill
“A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security has confirmed to The Hill’s broadcast partner NewsNation that President Trump will select Dave Venturella to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in an acting capacity after the departure of Todd Lyons, who is currently serving as the acting ICE chief. Lyons is expected to leave the administration for a role in the private sector on May 31, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced in a post on social platform X last month. … The Senate has not confirmed a director for ICE since 2017, resulting in almost ten years of the agency having a leader in an acting capacity.” (05/12/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5875195-trump-picks-new-acting-ice-director
- To Save Rural Health Care, Bring It out of the Dark Ages
Source: Independent Institute
by John C Goodman“Last year, Republicans in Congress cut Medicaid outlays and refused to extend Affordable Care Act enhanced subsidies. Yet less federal spending on health care threatened to affect a key Republican constituency: rural voters. To avoid retaliation for their actions, Republicans included $50 billion for rural health care in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, to be spent in various ways. Here is the bad news. Even before last year’s legislative actions, rural areas in the U.S. were losing doctors, hospitals and even pharmacies. That trend is likely to continue, and neither party has a realistic plan to deal with it.” (05/13/26)
- The Decline and Fall of Human Agency
Source: Law & Liberty
by Jeffrey Bilbro“Whenever a new technology comes down the pike, some people identify themselves as agents who can benefit from it, and others see themselves as victims who will be harmed by it. Agents get excited about how AI will enable them to get work done more easily and quickly. They can generate code, whip out targeted ad campaigns, analyze data, cheat on quizzes, respond to customer inquiries, or eliminate military targets. Victims fear that AI will empower the systems that already constrain or oppress them. They will suffer from software bugs or security vulnerabilities, be inundated with AI slop, get surveilled by governments and corporations, have their relationships infected by mistrust, get lost in labyrinthine bureaucracies, or be eliminated (perhaps erroneously) by an autonomous drone. This distinction helps make sense of the wildly varying responses to AI technologies: Agents generate utopian hype narratives while victims succumb to doomer fears.” (05/13/26)
https://lawliberty.org/forum/the-decline-and-fall-of-human-agency/
- Federal Courts, Local Wrongs: How Qualified Immunity Gave Us Lawless Law Enforcement
Source: Liberalism.org
by Radley Balko“At the state and local level, police officers (and government employees in general) are protected from lawsuits by a policy called qualified immunity. The policy isn’t in the Constitution, nor was it ever enacted by Congress. It’s a legal fiction that the U.S. Supreme Court invented from whole cloth. In fact, qualified immunity’s very existence cuts against the clear intent of the Fourteenth Amendment. … We commonly hear that ‘ignorance of the law is no excuse’ — you can’t defend yourself from criminal charges by claiming that you didn’t know that what you did was illegal. Qualified immunity not only provides an excuse for law enforcement officers when they violate someone’s constitutional rights, it’s an incentive for police agencies to keep their officers ignorant of how courts expect officers to treat members of the public.” (04/13/26)
- No good reason to reject liberty
Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal“People find many reasons to reject liberty. Fear. Envy. Ignorance. Tradition. In fact, there are probably as many reasons to reject liberty as there are people on this planet. Those whose careers depend on violating liberty will use any excuse they are handed. If they use envy, they can impose socialism and raise taxes on the rich. They can make people believe they have a ‘right’ to things that others must work to provide them. It can never be your right to enslave others! Using ignorance, political criminals lie and hope that too few notice to do anything about it. It’s how we get things like ‘assault weapon’ rules, carbon credits, and the war on (some) drugs. They also combine ignorance with envy, so those cheated in the brain department will demand to be coddled to dumb down society so that no one feels stupid.” (05/13/26)
- The Trump Hustle: Distraction, Deception and the Heist of the American Economy
Source: CounterPunch
by John Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead“Call it what it is: a heist. The corruption, cronyism, and self-dealing that now define the American government—under Donald Trump in particular—amount to a slow-motion stick-up carried out in broad daylight. But here’s the trick: it’s a heist hidden behind spectacle. The Trump administration is flooding the stage with noise so ‘we the people’ don’t notice what’s happening behind the curtain. We’re being manipulated into watching the wrong thing. The distractions are part of the plan to rob us blind. You don’t have to look far to see how the con works. Nowhere is the hustle more obvious than in how the presidency itself is being used.” (05/13/26)
- Foreign Policy Payback: Russia Backs Iran Against United States
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Ted Galen Carpenter“The previous proxy wars over the decades have had one important feature in common. The two great power rivals have successfully exploited ill-advised military ventures that the other country pursued. Taking advantage of such folly enabled the opponent to score relatively rewarding victories with minimal risk and effort. The Soviet Union took advantage of the foolish decision by multiple U.S. administrations to intervene in Vietnam’s civil war. … In the late 1970s, the Kremlin helped topple Afghanistan’s royalist government and install a communist successor. That ill-advised power play gave Washington an opportunity to achieve revenge for Moscow’s geopolitical success in Southeast Asia. … It’s still too early to be certain about the ultimate results of the ongoing proxy wars in Ukraine and Iran. There are opportunities for geopolitical triumphs on either side, but the potential for spectacular failures also exists.” (05/13/26)
- Trump May Wish to Reconsider Supporting Term Limits
Source: American Greatness
by Edward Ring“Attempts to restructure government at the federal level are mostly on the Democrat agenda. Pack the US Supreme Court. Elect presidents via popular vote. Turn Puerto Rico and Washington, DC, into states with two senators each. Implement national mail-in voting, automatic voter registration, legalize ballot harvesting, lower the voting age to 16, let felons vote, let noncitizens vote. And, of course, end the Senate filibuster. If they could, Democrats would do all of this. Meanwhile, however, there is a growing bipartisan movement to implement term limits for members of the House and Senate. A bill has been introduced in the 119th Congress, and President Trump has supported term limits consistently since he first ran for president in 2016. But federal term limits would do more harm than good.” (05/13/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/05/13/trump-may-wish-to-reconsider-supporting-term-limits/
- The Science is Not Settled: How Weak Evidence is Fueling a National Push to Ban Social Media for Youth
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Rindala Alajaji“As statehouses ramp up for 2026, we’re seeing a familiar and concerning trend of lawmakers rushing to regulate the internet based on shockingly shaky science. From the California State Assembly to the Massachusetts and Minnesota legislatures, a wave of bills is crashing against the digital lives of young people, with proponents of these measures framing social media access as a ‘public health epidemic,’ or a ‘mental health crisis,’ even though we have yet to see any of the settled science that those labels usually invoke. As a digital rights organization dedicated to the civil liberties of all users, EFF’s expertise lies in reminding lawmakers that young people enjoy largely the same free speech and privacy rights as adults.” (05/14/26)
- Hantavirus, the WHO, and the Conflicts in Weighing Mortality
Source: Brownstone Institute
by David Bell“Yesterday, almost 2,000 people, mostly young children, died of malaria because they could not access effective and relatively cheap treatment quickly enough. About 4,000 people died of tuberculosis (TB), including many young adults leaving orphans. This happens every day. Progress in reducing these numbers is stalling, as partly due to the continuing economic damage from the Covid-19 response. … The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 10,000 to 100,000 hantavirus cases occur every year, spread across the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia. The current media coverage and WHO news conferences therefore concern about one-thousandth of the cases expected this year. The United States averages about 30 – they simply have not been newsworthy. … So, among the 170,000 average deaths in the world each day, and thousands from the WHO’s traditional focus diseases, why the excitement over Hantavirus?” (05/13/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/hantavirus-the-who-and-the-conflicts-in-weighing-mortality/
- Africa refashions relations with the West
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff“This week’s Africa Forward summit in Nairobi, Kenya, signals both continuity and change – or, to put it differently, continuing change in perceptions of the continent’s opportunities and abilities to decisively shape its future. Co-hosted by Kenya and France, the May 11-12 event has drawn some 30 heads of state and 7,000 government and business representatives to the East African capital city. Discussions are focused on investment (in artificial intelligence, renewable energy, and infrastructure) and on ways to reform international trade and finance systems to address indebtedness and unlock capital flows.” (05/12/26)
- Ben Sasse’s Warning: Reclaim Your Attention Before It’s Too Late
Source: Mindset Shifts
by Barry Brownstein“The ability to direct one’s attention is an increasingly scarce and valuable practice — and a prerequisite for meaningful freedom.” (05/13/26)
https://mindsetshifts.substack.com/p/ben-sasses-warning-reclaim-your-attention
- America needs drone defense plan before disaster strikes
Source: Fox News Forum
by Jason Chaffetz“In the USA there are roughly 220,000 commercial aircraft. By 2027, the FAA estimates there will be more than 2.7 million drones. As firefighting aircraft raced to drop retardant on a raging wildfire in Utah’s Provo Canyon last summer, some flights were grounded by a new threat. Private drones, presumably trying to capture dramatic footage of the fire, forced critical support to stand down while flames advanced. This incident was no anomaly. There were hundreds of drone sightings over wildfires in 2025. Such civilian disruptions are only the beginning. Drone warfare and prevalence has come to American soil. Cheap, loosely regulated drones have the capability to disrupt military bases, surveil the homes of Cabinet secretaries and your backyard, threaten aircraft, and even attack the president of the United States. These threats are not hypothetical. It is real, it is now, and it urgently must be addressed.” (05/13/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/jason-chaffetz-america-needs-drone-defense-plan-disaster-strikes
- America can’t afford year-round E15 fuel — Congress must reject it
Source: The Hill
by David Widawsky“As Congress debates proposals to allow the year-round sale of E15 gasoline — fuel blended with 15 percent corn ethanol rather than the common 10 percent blend — lawmakers are being told this is a simple win for consumers, farmers and energy security. Unfortunately, evidence shows that is not the case. In reality, ‘year-round E15’ legislation would deepen an environmentally damaging and economically inefficient policy while increasing costs for American families already struggling with inflation. And let’s be real, the proposal is not about energy independence. It is a back-door way to expand the domestic market for U.S. corn at consumers’ expense, after U.S. corn farmers and exports were shocked by the cancellation of more than 1 million tons of U.S. food aid (mostly corn) to countries with poor and undernourished children.” [editor’s note: Allow? Absolutely. Subsidize? Absolutely not. End all ethanol subsidies and let the idea succeed or fail on its own – TLK] (05/13/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/5873925-year-round-e15-gasoline-debate/
- Either You Believe Israel Is Evil Or You Believe It’s All An Elaborate Conspiracy
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“Basically you have two choices: either you believe Israel is a genocidal state that is morally comparable to Nazi Germany, or you believe there’s a giant global conspiracy of mainstream western institutions and media outlets dedicated to making Israel look bad. Believing the second option is the only way to get around believing the first. That’s the only way to believe mainstream outlets like The New York Times are committing antisemitic blood libel with their reporting on the systemic sexual torture of Palestinians in Israeli prisons. It’s the only way to dismiss the fact that every relevant human rights group on earth says Israel is guilty of genocide, while zero comparable human rights groups say it isn’t. You necessarily need to espouse a wild conspiracy theory. You need to believe the conspiracy goes all the way to the top, with its tentacles in mainstream institutions all across the globe.” (05/13/26)
- In Cuba, Socialism Has Morphed Into A Racket
Source: Persuasion
by James Bloodworth“For decades, Cuba has presented itself—both to its citizens and to the world—as a socialist alternative to the inequalities of global capitalism. That story still has its defenders abroad. But spend any time on the island today and it becomes clear that something else has taken its place: not socialism in any meaningful sense, but a post-ideological system run by a military-commercial elite that continues to speak the language of revolution long after the revolution itself has faded. Socialism has already fallen in Havana, even if some of the country’s intransigent foreign admirers remain staunchly ignorant of the fact. That the implacable state continues to wave a red flag is neither here nor there.” (05/13/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/socialism-has-already-fallen-in-cuba
- Progressives and Conservatives Are Wrong About Taxing the Rich
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Connor O’Keeffe“[B]oth progressives and conservatives show a complete unwillingness or inability to distinguish between those who got rich by genuinely creating value that left society as a whole better off and those who are getting rich by expropriating wealth through force. Establishment conservatives will often agree that some businessmen and companies engage in rent-seeking or work with government regulators to protect themselves from competition. But they’ll usually write that behavior off as an isolated issue that in no way defines the economic status quo in the US. But it’s a major factor. The government has been intervening heavily in the economy on behalf of well-connected companies for at least the last century.” (05/13/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/progressives-and-conservatives-are-wrong-about-taxing-rich
- The Trump Administration Is a Powerful but Unreliable Ally of Second Amendment Advocates
Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum“After the Supreme Court clarified the constitutional test for gun control laws in 2022, many longstanding restrictions on the right to arms looked newly vulnerable. Second Amendment groups jumped at the opportunity, filing one lawsuit after another in cases that frequently pitted them against the Biden administration. Those groups now have a powerful ally in the Trump administration, which has filed several lawsuits aimed at vindicating Americans’ gun rights, including two filed last week in Colorado. But even as the Justice Department advertises its commitment to defending the Second Amendment, its position in other gun cases belies that stance.” (05/13/26)
- Hochul’s funny money only enables Mamdani’s even-funnier “fiscal plan” for NYC
Source: New York Post
by staff“Mayor Zohran Mamdani boasted Tuesday that he plugged the city’s multibillion-dollar budget gap for the coming fiscal year — but it’s only ‘balanced’ with gimmicks that guarantee oceans more red ink in the years ahead. With a late assist from Gov. Kathy Hochul’s own flim-flammery, the new, $124.7 billion Mamdani spending plan relies on one-time cash infusions, postponed payments and dubious calculations of future tax windfalls and theoretical savings. The day began with Hochul boldly announcing yet another of her trademark cave-ins: After weeks of insisting she’d given the mayor as much help as she could, the gov magically found another $4 billion for him just hours before he presented his plan. Yet half the windfall comes down to new debt, much of the rest is pretty vaporous — and all of it amounts to just telling the spending addict he can keep on shooting up.” (05/13/26)
- Baby Steps: A newborn credit relieves pressure on families
Source: Niskanen Center
by Leah Sargeant“With the introduction of the Supporting Newborn Parents Act, Reps. David Valadao (R-CA), Tom Suozzi (D-NY), Blake Moore (R-UT), and Debbie Dingell (D-MI) have put forward a powerful piece of pro-family legislation. The proposed newborn credit would give nearly all families celebrating the birth of a child another reason to celebrate: a refundable tax credit of $2,000 shortly after their baby is born. This timely payment would help parents navigate the financial shocks that tend to come in baby’s first year.” (05/13/26)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/baby-steps-a-newborn-credit-relieves-pressure-on-families
- The Malignant Hypocrisy of Conservatives Is on Full Display in Venezuela
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“For decades, conservatives have condemned the socialist-communist regime in Venezuela. They have called it evil, immoral, deadly, and destructive. In fact, conservatives even came to describe the Venezuelan regime as a ‘narco-terrorist’ regime. Why, they have even supported unsuccessful regime-change efforts within the country. … What’s the situation today? It’s hard to believe. The U.S. government, led by President Trump, the Pentagon, and the CIA, is actively partnering with the very socialist-communist, narco-terrorist regime that conservatives have long criticized and condemned.” (05/13/26)
- Ukraine’s conscription crisis is getting increasingly bloody
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Branko Marcetic“The war in Ukraine has been defined by periodic bursts of certainty that Russia is on the back foot, if not close to collapse, and that Ukraine, conversely, is inches away from victory. We appear to be in the middle of one of these moments of euphoria now. Finnish President Alexander Stubb has declared that Ukraine is ‘on top’ and ‘in a much better place than it has been at any stage in this horrific war’, charging that Russia is unable to recruit enough soldiers to make up for those it’s losing. Ukrainians have ‘a growing self-confidence’ on account of the territory they have supposedly retaken, as one former U.S. ambassador put it, and their growing confidence over military advances ‘is strikingly higher today than a year ago’, charged another. A spate of reports have it that the walls are closing in on Russian President Vladimir Putin.” (05/13/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/ukraine-forced-conscription/
- America’s New Debt Milestone
Source: Law & Liberty
by Julia R Cartwright“The United States has reached a milestone, and unfortunately, it’s not one to celebrate. For the first time outside a genuine crisis, America’s national debt now exceeds the size of its entire economy. There is nothing magical about the 100% line; it’s more of a psychological threshold than a hard cliff. Indeed, debt hawks have sounded alarms for years, and the economy has not yet collapsed. But the absence of collapse is not the same as the absence of consequences. Like other developed nations that have drifted into high debt territory, cracks in the American economy are beginning to show, structurally and with compounding force.” (05/13/26)
- Why J Street Does Not Go Far Enough
Source: Antiwar.com
by Harrison Berger“An illegal auction of stolen Palestinian land at an elite Upper East Side synagogue, and the swift condemnations from groups like J Street launched against New Yorkers who attempted to protest it, reveal the Zionist rot at the heart of the American Jewish elite establishment that is bastardizing and corrupting the religion from within, and why liberal Zionist groups present only an impotent challenge to it. … J Street’s response to those protests – condemning both the protesters and the land sales in equal measure – is indicative of the balancing act the organization has attempted to manage, one that is unstable and contradictory, with its guiding (or rather, mis-guiding) principle that Zionism can ultimately be reformed …. and that the American Jewish elite institutions which have funded settlement expansion, armed soldiers to ethnically cleanse Gaza, and laundered Israel’s atrocity propaganda bears no meaningful responsibility for what Israel does.” (05/13/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/harrison_berger/2026/05/12/why-j-street-does-not-go-far-enough/
- James Comey Is Insufferable. The Trump Charges Against Him Are Absurd
Source: Washington Monthly
by James D Zirin“The former FBI director has been indicted for a threat spelled with seashells. Why this lawfare will falter.” (05/13/26)
- Bob Dylan’s Argument With God
Source: The New Republic
by Alex Shephard“Ron Rosenbaum’s latest book, Bob Dylan: Things Have Changed, is not a biography. It is instead a ‘kind of biography’ — which is a distinction with a difference. It is, in keeping with Rosenbaum’s long record of fine-tuned literary analysis mixed with historical and, yes, biographical detail, a study of Dylan’s songwriting and a reckoning with his moral, philosophical, and religious imagery and fixations. ‘Dylan has remade American speech, American thought, American attitude,’ Rosenbaum writes. Bob Dylan: Things Have Changed is an examination of how he remade those things, with a particular emphasis on ‘theodicy’ and what Rosenbaum calls Dylan’s ‘argument with god.’ Steering clear of the usual cloud of hagiography that hovers above most writing about Dylan, it’s a book that instead focuses on what makes him unique. ” (05/13/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/210326/bob-dylan-argument-god
- Redistricting Wars Prove History Doesn’t Move in Just One Direction
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
by Michael Waldman“The late 19th century was a dismal time in American politics. Corruption ran rampant. Congress was governed by staunch partisan loyalties and nail-biting majorities. And redistricting, instead of being confined to after the census every 10 years, was a tool of manipulation and partisan hardball. ‘From 1872 to 1896,’ a political scientist reports, ‘at least one state redrew its congressional districts each year.’ Of course, that era was marred by another phenomenon — one too familiar to us today. It saw a swift rollback in voting rights and representation for the newly freed Black population of the South. In 1875, after the Civil War and the adoption of the 15th Amendment, seven Black men served in the House, and one sat as a senator. Terrorism, political cowardice, and racial backlash ended Reconstruction. By 1902, Congress was once again all white.” (05/13/26)
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/supreme-court-sets-gerrymandering-frenzy
- Uganda’s Gold
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Arman Sidhu“For a small-scale gold miner in Uganda, the question of where to sell has just been answered for him. Gold has surpassed coffee as Uganda’s largest export, and as of last month, the country’s central bank is positioning itself as the dominant legal buyer for nearly all of it. Late in April, the Bank of Uganda launched a three-year gold-buying program that registers it as a gold dealer purchasing directly from licensed Ugandan miners through contracts with two refiners.” (05/13/26)
- Is Housing Less Affordable Than Ever? Sort Of
Source: The Daily Economy
by Peter C Earle“Home prices and financing costs are still high, but several indicators suggest the market has moved past peak distortion.” (05/13/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/is-housing-less-affordable-than-ever-sort-of/
- Estimating the Iran War’s Effect on US Gasoline Prices
Source: The Daily Economy
by Antón Chamberlin“Americans seldom experience war directly — World War II was the last time a war reached US soil. Since then, our wars have been experienced much more indirectly. No ration books appeared during Vietnam, no mass retooling of factories happened for Desert Storm, and daily life seems largely unchanged despite a decades-long War on Terror. The Iran War seems to be the same, at least in these respects. All wars still impose costs on ordinary Americans, of course; they simply arrive in quieter ways. Enter every trip to the gas station since February 28.” (05/13/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/estimating-the-iran-wars-effect-on-us-gasoline-prices/
- Sean Duffy’s family vacation was funded by companies he regulates
Source: USA Today
by Chris Brennan“It’s not exactly a mystery why Sean Duffy, President Donald Trump’s secretary of Transportation, seems so befuddled and embittered about the backlash that followed his May 8 reveal that American corporations funded a five-part reality television series about a “Great American Road Trip” for his family. … Television shows have sponsors. And the Duffy family road trip has some of the biggest corporations paying the bills. And some of them are regulated by the Department of Transportation. Trump’s administration has always seemed at least as interested, if not more interested, in content generation than in governing. Why do boring public servants work when you can be an influencer on television and social media? But the look-at-me crowd gets pretty huffy when they receive actual scrutiny.” (05/13/26)
- Iran Humiliation Will Only Embolden China
Source: The Contrarian
by Jennifer Rubin“Donald Trump has apparently not figured out that Iran holds all the cards. Still fixated on the notion that the ‘winner’ of the war is the side that blows up the most stuff, he remains convinced he can dictate terms to Iran. But the Iranians hold the Strait of Hormuz and have remained convinced that Trump has no stomach for more military action. In any event, they are confident they can sustain any further U.S. attacks. Naturally, then, Iran is sticking to demands to keep control of the Strait, obtain sanctions relief, and even extract reparations from the U.S. … Trump’s trip to China may only deepen his predicament.” (05/13/26)
https://www.contrariannews.org/p/iran-humiliation-will-only-embolden
- The Political Orphanage, 05/13/26
Source: The Political Orphanage
“Fighting Crime Like an Economist.” (05/13/26)
https://politicalorphanage.libsyn.com/fighting-crime-like-an-economist
- Reasonably Optimistic, 05/13/26
Source: Washington Post
“What prediction markets tell us about the future.” (05/13/26)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/impromptu/what-prediction-markets-tell-us-about-the-future/
- Rising, 05/13/26
Source: The Hill
“Glenn Greenwald slams AOC as ‘unprincipled, craven, partisan apparatchik.'” (05/13/26)
- Half the Answer, episode 83
Source: Liberal Currents
“In a time when the ruling party seems to be totally fine with breaking every law, every rule, and every norm that was holding our country in the general shape and consistency of a democracy, what should the opposition party be willing to do? Are there times when retaliation that goes against one of our principles might serve a greater purpose? Are there times when it would only further erode our values? Trent and Caitlin ask Political Theory Professor Jacob T. Levy what he thinks.” (05/14/26)
- AI Summer, 05/13/26
Source: AI Summer
“Divyansh Kaushik on the robotics race between China and the US.” (05/13/26)
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 05/13/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Tucker Carlson A ‘Domestic Terrorist?'” (05/16/26)
- The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 05/13/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump’s Rage Boils Over at Journos as Inflation Data Takes Brutal Turn.” (05/13/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/210345/trump-rage-boils-journos-inflation-data-takes-brutal-turn
- Freedom Works with Paul Molloy, 05/13/26
Source: Freedom Works
“Jake Werner, Quincy Institute ‘Trump-Xi Summit.'” (05/13/26)
https://internetradiopros.com/freedomworks/?name=2026-05-14_zfw005132026.mp3
- The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 05/13/26
Source: The Dispatch
“Radical Chic | Interview: Noah Rothman.” (05/13/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/radical-chic-interview-noah-rothman/
- The Cost of Bureaucracy
Source: Cobden Centre
Speech in Brussels by Max Rangeley. (05/13/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/05/speech-in-brussels-on-the-cost-of-bureaucracy/
- Politics Politics Politics, 05/12/26
Source: Politics Politics Politics
“Iran War Brings BIG Inflation. Is the UK Already in Need of Another PM? (with Stella Tsantekidou).” (05/12/26)
https://www.politicspoliticspolitics.com/p/iran-war-brings-big-inflation-is
- Reason Interview: John Fetterman
Source: Reason
“Sen. John Fetterman discusses the state of the Democratic Party, immigration, foreign policy, and the dangers of political extremism.” (05/13/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/05/13/john-fetterman-im-a-very-pro-capitalist-democrat/
- Nonzero, 05/12/26
Source: bloggingheads.tv
“Is the AI Takeoff Starting? | Robert Wright & Timothy B. Lee.” (05/12/26)